I unfortunately do not own the world of Harry Potter. That honor belongs to J. K. Rowling.

I would just like to say a quick thanks to panneler-san, FlameingFire, Princess-Lazy-Chan, Allen Pitt, WritingAnotherReality, narniagirl18, Celeste Belle, PrimiGrl, Zamaya, Loonynamelass, L-lover, Shrn109, and sohma1232.

This is my first fan-fic. Hope you like it! (And if you haven't guessed by now, reviews are greatly appreciated!)

Just so you all know - I am also writing two other fan-fics - Mysterious Last Name (my second), and Caught Between Worlds (my third). I would really appreciate it if you would check them out. Thanks!

Chapter 27:

Idiots

Ariella finally reached her room, and quickly whispered the password, and slipped inside. Immediately, she went over to her desk, opened the book she had borrowed from the library, took out her wand, and first just repeated the incantation out loud a few times:

"Expecto Patronum." Then, holding her wand at arm's length, she said the spell...nothing happened. Finally, on her fourth try, a few silver wisps emerged from the tip of her wand. Excited and now motivated. Six tries later, she managed to get a silver - mist shield, a weak Patronus, but a good start nonetheless, to emerge from the tip of her wand.

She was about to try again when she heard voices outside, coming up the hallway. She looked at the time, and realized that it had grown late, though no one should be back yet. However, she quickly slipped out of the room, and pretended to be walking to the Slytherin Common Room, (well, actually she was, but only because she had heard the voices). Turning the corner, she stopped dead in her tracks, and her eyes widened at the sight in front of her. There, standing soaked with slush and mud, were Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, and Draco Malfoy. Ariella clapped a hand to her mouth to stifle the gasp that had escaped, and the laughter that threatened to spill out. She quickly turned away, and started to leave when Draco saw her.

"Oi! Aren't you going to help us?" He said, his voice full of annoyance and command. Ariella just shrugged, and removing her hand from in front of her mouth, she hurriedly bit her lip, so that she wouldn't laugh out loud. She came forward, head down, and said,

"Yes?", trying very hard to keep the amusement out of her voice. Unfortunately, she didn't do a very good job, because she noticed Draco's eye narrow, and a sneer come onto his face as he said,

"Find this funny, don't you?" Instead of trying to hide the truth, she said,

"Of course! Don't you?" He glared at her, while Ariella took out her wand and, steadying her voice, said the incantation for the hot-air charm. Draco nodded curtly to her, and started to turn to go down to the Slytherin Common Room with the "trolls", (as she had nick-named Crabbe and Goyle), when she called out,

"Aren't you going to tell me what happened?" Draco stopped, and turning his head slightly, nodded in the direction he was going in. Ariella rolled her eyes, and followed him. At an intersection, he turned to his friends and told them to go on back to the Common Room without him. He then went directly to Snape's office to explain what had happened. (His version, of course.)

To sum it up, Draco said that he was minding his own business, (yeah right!) when, out of nowhere, snowballs starting flying at him from nowhere. Towards the end, someone pulled him down a slushy hill. However, right at the end of this little excitement, he saw Harry Potter's head on the ground. Ariella immediately knew what had happened, but she doubted Snape or Draco knew. She decided to keep her mouth shut as the Potion's Master stormed out of the dungeons to confront the Gryffindor. What she guessed was that Harry had snuck into the Hogsmead Village under his invisibility cloak, (though she didn't know how he had gotten passed Filch's detectors,) and had been defending Ron and Hermione, (who Malfoy had mentioned were there as well…leading Ariella to believe that he had been taunting them again,) and the hood of his cloak had slipped from covering his head. Of course, this had to happen outside the "haunted" Shrieking Shack. Idiot, she thought as she left the dungeons herself.

About a week or two later, Ariella arrived at breakfast to see some kind of commotion going on. Harry had received a rather large package. She herself started to make her way over to see what exactly it was. Ariella gasped when she saw what was behind the crudely wrapped package – a Firebolt! The newest and latest in racing brooms! Hermione, however looked worried. She was worried because no one had sent a card along with the broom, and she was distraught, thinking that Sirius Black had jinxed it, and sent it to Harry in order to get rid of him. Ariella couldn't help think that while she had a point, how Merlin's name was Sirius Black of all people going to be able to get that kind of a broom, let alone anything at all, and send it to someone without being seen? That's what made no sense with Hermione's logic. Her mouth suddenly turned into a broad smirk – she had just envisioned Draco Malfoy's expression when he saw what Harry had gotten for Christmas…CHRISTMAS!!

With that, she raced out of the room, back to the dungeons as fast as she could. They were supposed to leave that morning, that's why the Great Hall had looked so empty! She was such an IDIOT! She was so STUPID! How could she have forgotten that they left that morning?

Ariella reached the third-year girls' dormitory. She gathered her things, and packed them any which way she could, before racing out the two front doors. She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw that there was still one carriage that hadn't left to take them to the train station. As she boarded the Hogwarts Express, she spotted Draco with his friends, and, giving a quick wave to let him know that she was indeed there, (to which he responded with a curt nod,) she boarded the train, and got herself situated in an empty compartment. As she leaned her head against the back of the seat, she heaved a sigh of relief that she had made it, and closed her eyes. There was no way she was looking forward to going back to Malfoy Manor for the holidays. That always meant a) lots of extra work for her and b) seeing Lucius Malfoy which just meant more punishment for her. She groaned. No, she was not looking forward to the holidays one bit.

HEY! SO I HAVE ACTUALLY STARTED ONE OF THE STORIES ABOVE. IT'S CALLED ANOTHER PROFESSOR SNAPE. PLEASE CHECK IT OUT! THANKS!!! :)

Thanks to all who are reading, and liking it. If you have any suggestions, questions, or comments, please feel free to review/private message me. Also, if you have any ideas at all, or would like to see something happen, let me know, and I'll consider putting them into a chapter. Thanks! ~ Leanora